Types of place names

The classification of names is an important topic in toponymy. Scientific classification must be based on the essential characteristics of things, and reasonable classification can also test people's understanding of the essential attributes of things in turn. Studying the classification of place names is helpful to understand the essential characteristics of place names. The scientific classification of place names is not only of great significance to the theoretical research of toponymy, but also an unsolved problem in practical research. The characteristics of objective things are varied, and the same thing can be classified according to different characteristics. Place names are complex social phenomena, and there are many classifications from different angles.

Place names are proper nouns in languages. According to different word formation methods, it can be divided into simple place names (land and lang) and compound place names. The compound place names are single-layer (Yangtze River, Langya Mountain) and multi-layer (Qingshan District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province). According to different etymology, dialect place names, national place names and foreign place names can also be distinguished. As a historical and social phenomenon, place names can also be divided into contemporary place names and historical place names, standard place names unified by the whole society, aliases and common names prevailing in some areas, real place names and fictional place names (Flame Mountain, Wei Zhuang) and so on. The generic names of place names reflect the types of geographical entities, which can be divided into natural geographical entity names and human geographical entity names according to different generic names. The former includes plains, deserts, mountains and rivers. The latter includes artificial features, residential areas and administrative divisions.

The word-formation classification of place names is the same research content in toponymy and linguistics; The historical classification of place names is the same subject of toponymy and historical geography; The classification of generic names of place names is a common concern of toponymy and geography. It can also be seen from here that toponymy is a multifaceted frontier discipline.

However, toponymy should also have its own unique research content. Place names are the reflection of geographical entities in people's minds. Place names are neither geographical entities themselves nor fiction unrelated to geographical entities, but the unity of opposites between objective existence and subjective understanding. Studying "how people name place names" is a unique research content of toponymy. In this sense, the classification of toponymy should be "the classification of nomenclature". This paper attempts to analyze the classification of place names from four different naming methods and explain the relationship between them. 1? Descriptive place names

Among all place names, descriptive place names are more common, that is, place names that describe the geographical characteristics of geographical entities. When people describe various geographical features, there are usually three different viewpoints, and such place names are divided into three sub-categories.

(1) indicates the geographical location.

Some are named after the location of geographical entities, such as Henan and Hebei, which refer to the location relationship with the Yellow River; Shandong and Shanxi are located in Taihang Mountain area. The place name belt "Yin" means Shanbei and Shuinan (Huayin and Huaiyin), and the place name belt "Yang" means Shan Zhinan and Shuibei (Hengyang and Luoyang). Small villages around the country, such as Shanqian, Houji, Shuinan, Dong Xi, Qiancun, Houcheng, Tian Xin, Zhongzhai, Linjiang and Bayside, also belong to azimuth place names. Some indicate the distance and height. There are many Shilipu, Qiweiying, Balizhuang, Sanlihe and Wulidian in the northern urban and rural areas, and there are five Li Po, Qianligang and Baizhang mines in the mountainous areas. There are 847 highlands on the military map, all of which are named after the actual or exaggerated distance and height. The certain order of some arrangements does not mean the orientation relationship between them. Numbers and heavenly stems and earthly branches can be used to sort the columns, such as Sidaokou, Wubao, Dongsijiutiao, Ernongchang, Erbatou, Liuzhan, Bingcun, Jiazi and Woods Town.

(2) Describe the natural landscape

Most of these place names are descriptions of topography and natural features. Hundreds of Dashan, Shibapan, Jiuquxi, Wanquan River, Long Island, Dingkou and Sanjiao Street are descriptions of the terrain. Wuzhishan, Naitou Mountain, Jijishan, Sun Moon Lake, Yanjing Lake, Vase Island and Elephant Trunk Mountain are descriptions of the terrain. Wukesong, Huaishuzhuang, Zhangshu, Shizhu, Shitan and Yushugou are records of natural features. The characteristics of soil and hydrology are often the basis of naming. When describing the hydrological characteristics of soil, place names can distinguish its color visually, or distinguish its hot and cold from tactile sense, and also distinguish its water flow from turbidity, depth and speed. White mud, white sand, white stone, black mountain, black stone and black sand are such names. Lateritization is widespread in Fujian, and red weathering crust is widely distributed. Coupled with the red rock formations, the names of "red, red, purple and Dan" are everywhere. There are Changbai Mountain and Yushan Mountain, which have been snowed for many years. Evergreen places are Castle Peak, Qingcheng City and Green Spring. The names of Shenwan, Danshui, Shahe, Jinshuidu, Qingshui River, Zhuoshuixi, lengshuitan and Xiangshuihe are also very common. Climate and scenery are also the contents of describing natural landscapes. Guiyang is known as "there is no sunny day for three days", and Chongqing is also known as the foggy city. Thunder rumbles in Leizhou, and there is no winter in Hengchun. Everyone is familiar with it. Muztag in Uyghur is an iceberg, Mouzard is a glacier, Himalaya in Tibetan is the hometown of snow, and Xiegongla is the mouth of East Snow Mountain, all of which are related to the climate. Baiyun Mountain, Dai Yun, Wufeng, Xiayunling, Fengyunshi and Yixiantian are also descriptions of the scenery.

(3) Description of natural resources

Ivory Cave, Heshan, Hushan, Monkey Island and Yuanyang River illustrate animal resources. More are named after plant resources, such as Yang Shan, Shanling, Songshan, Songyuan, Zhelin, Guilin, Tongbai Mountain, Chestnut and LAM Raymond. Once underground mineral deposits are discovered, they are often used as a basis for naming. There are melon stones and Li Jinshan in Keelung Mountain, Taipei, and gold is produced nearby. Tongling and Tongshan produce copper; Tieshan and Tieling hold iron. There are Lion Mountain, Elephant Trunk Mountain and Jianshan Mountain in the southwest of Huangshi, collectively referred to as Tieshan, which contains many iron mines, and there are names such as Tiemenkou and Tieshan Sai nearby, which are the "granaries" of WISCO. Karamay is "Black Oil Mountain" in Uygur language, and Qaidam is "Salt Ze" in Mongolian language, both of which are resource names. There are many hot springs in Fujian and Taiwan, and many villages are named after hot springs, soup pits, soup banks, soup doors and soup sides. 2

Descriptive place names

That is, place names that reflect the characteristics of human geography. This kind of place names can be roughly divided into four subcategories.

(1) Cultural Landscape Narration

The landscape created by human beings using and transforming nature is called cultural landscape. Place names named after various artificial buildings and facilities belong to cultural landscape place names. There are towers on Baota shan, wells in Liangshuijing Village, Yuanmingyuan Road around Yuanmingyuan, Sanjiaxiang and Jiujianpai are the buildings in the named hutong, as well as the common village names such as lime kiln, bowl kiln, Guandi Temple, Longwang Temple and tile factory, all of which describe the characteristics of artificial buildings. Commercial facilities are described by place names in units of "city, store, city and city"; Baked tea, oil mill, blacksmith shop, silver washing camp and tin alley describe handicraft facilities; Arch bridge, Shuangqiao, Guandu and Fuyi are transportation facilities; Guanbei, Liuwei and Shiyan are water conservancy facilities; Juncheng, Yandun and Lanqiying are military facilities; Orchard, Heping, Li Antang, Bainong (in front of forest), Napo (paddy field) and Namiao (mud field) in Zhuang language are agricultural facilities. Whether in urban or rural areas, such place names exist in large numbers everywhere.

(2) Record the surnames of the characters.

People use famous place names in several different ways. Xiang Qian Township, Minhou County, Fujian Province is the hometown of Lin Xiangqian, a martyr of the Erqi Movement. According to legend, Zhuxian Town was the hometown of Zhu Hai, a good friend of Hou Ying, a disciple of Wei Xinling during the Warring States Period, and was named after it as the birthplace of names. Du Kang Village, Ruyang County, Henan Province is said to be the wine-making place of Du Kang in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Xiaoqiao Lane in Jiujiang is said to be the residence of Mrs. Zhou Yu, commander-in-chief of Wudong Water Army. Han Yu is an official in Chaozhou, which is named after Han Jiang and Han Shan. Shuzhuang Garden in Gulangyu Island was built by Lin Shuzhuang, and Tiger and Leopard Villa in the harbor was built by Hu Wenhu and named after its owner. As for Zhongshan Road and Zhongshan Park, the common successful villages and country names in Taiwan Province Province reflect people's admiration for heroes.

People who use tribal names as place names always live in the local area. In ancient times, tribal names and place names were often the same. For example, in the Xia Dynasty, some people lived in Wei, some in poverty (now south of Dezhou), some in Xin, some in Yu (now north of Shangqiu) and some in Hu (now Huxian). We can also see the distribution of ethnic groups from many modern place names, such as Shi Miao and Yaogangxian in Hunan, Yaoling and Limu Mountain in Guangdong, Yaozhai and Miaoer Mountain in Guangxi, Jiangshe and Guanshe in Fujian and so on.

In the long-term patriarchal society, people lived together under surnames, and many place names were given surnames, especially in densely populated places with similar natural and geographical conditions.

(3) record historical facts and legends

Ancient county names, Guansai names, village names and other geographical names have preserved important historical clues for us. Hubei Suixian was a vassal state in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Yunxian was named after Guan in the Han Dynasty. Anhui follows the name of Qin county.

Some administrative divisions are often named after the dynasty and year when they were named. Pucheng County, Fujian Province was called Hanxing when it was founded in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It was changed to Xing Wu in the Wu Dong period and to Tangxing in the Tang Dynasty. Jin 'an River in Fuzhou is a port opened in Jin Dynasty and an immigrant from Jinjiang City in the eastern Jin Dynasty and the southern Jin Dynasty, and misses the name of the old country. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty has a title, and some counties are named after the title of the emperor. For example, Shaoxing, Jingdezhen and Zhenghe were all named after the year of the Song Dynasty.

Some place names commemorate a historical event. For example, Bayi Road in Fuzhou commemorates the liberation of Fuzhou on August 17, and Bayi Avenue in Nanchang commemorates the August 1 Nanchang Uprising.

There are also some historical place names that do not reflect specific historical facts, but are the floorboard of historical changes. For example, there are ancient cities, old counties, ancient towns, old streets, new villages, Xincuo and many other places.

Named after folklore, it is common in famous mountains, rivers and scenic spots. Lushan Mountain was originally named Kuanglu, and it is said that there are Kuanglu brothers living in seclusion on the mountain. Wuyishan is the story of Wuyi Jun's brothers who saved the people by controlling water. Those inaccessible, misty or snow-covered mountains arouse people's imagination, and stories fabricated according to imagination are often religious. Jiuxian Mountain, goddess peak, Xianju and Shenquan are all such place names in Chinese. In Tibetan, Lhasa is a "holy land", Bangor is an auspicious protector, Geji is an all-knowing god, Kerry is a "holy mountain" and Mount Everest is a "longevity queen and goddess", all of which are related to Buddhist legends. However, sometimes it is not easy to tell which is the first place name and the corresponding legend.

(4) contains certain ideas and concepts.

Place names are the names people give to geographical entities, which is an ideological phenomenon.

Different times have different ruling ideas and different concepts of the times, which are often reflected in place names. When the ancient emperors named the newly established counties, they either chose eulogizing words or directly borrowed their political ideas or moral concepts. The former are Wuwei, Dinghai, Anshun and Xuanhua, while the latter are Renyi, Xiaogan, Lizhou and Liquan. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, there appeared such place names as democracy, construction, red flag and light. Such place names are actually propaganda place names.

Some place names place their hopes for names (mainly for peace and blessing). Nearly half (365,438+0) of the 67 counties and cities in Fujian Province have the words "Fu, Tai, An, Ning, He, Ping, Qing and Ming". Among the place names included in Atlas of People and Provinces in China, 54 are Taiping and 24 are Xinglong. three

Native place names and derived place names

Geographical names are divided into descriptive geographical names and descriptive geographical names, which are classified from the nature of geographical names. These two different place names reflect the characteristics of geographical entities from two different angles: natural geography and human geography. Things can be classified not only by nature, but also by relationship. According to the relationship between place names, place names can also be divided into original place names and related place names. The original place name is the new name of the new place, and the related place names are used to name the new place. This kind of related place name derived from the original place name can also be called related place name. According to the different relationships, it can be roughly divided into three small categories.

(1) moved place names

Most of the place names mentioned above are original names, and there are also converted place names in cultural landscapes and historical place names. For example, the name of the Yuanmingyuan routing garden was changed to the name of the road, and the Longwang Temple was changed from the name of the temple to the name of the village; As the county changed from an ancient country name to a county name, Shijiazhuang changed from a village name to a city name.

Not only the geographical names of human geographical entities can be converted into categories, but they can also be converted into categories with natural geographical entities. Qinghai Province is named after Qinghai Lake, Quanzhou and Ganzhou are named after Quanshan and Ganjiang, and Yunmeng County is named after Yunmengze. Jiaozhou Bay, Leizhou Peninsula and Taiwan Province Strait are named after Jiaozhou, Leizhou and Taiwan Province provinces.

Pool name conversion is to convert the generic names of original names into proper names of related place names, but sometimes the generic names of original names are omitted, such as Quanzhou and Yunmeng County, and sometimes the generic names of related place names are omitted, such as Longwangmiao (village) and Beidaihe (town).

(2) Imitating place names

Move the original name to a new place. Is to copy place names. Sometimes it will be moved here intact and used as a new proper name. For example, Shanghai has Nanjing Road, Sichuan Road, Tianmu Road, Yan 'an Road and so on. The transliteration of this place name is common in the street names of cities.

Ancient overseas Chinese settled in counties and counties, which is also an imitation of place names. During the Six Dynasties, the north and south were divided, and the gentry who moved south often settled in counties. For example, Emperor Jinyuan of Rudong settled in Yanzhou, overseas Chinese in Zhenjiang, changed to Zhou Nan in Southern Song Dynasty, and settled in South Yuzhou of Liuhe and Yangzhou of Shaoxing.

In order to miss their homeland, immigrants from afar also moved the place names of their ancestral homes to new places. Fujian and Guangdong people moved to Taiwan Province Island and used many local place names, such as Quanzhou Society, Tongan Village, Zhangzhou Wei, Raoping Village and Meizhou Li.

There is also a kind of imitation of place names, because it is elegant and obvious, and it uses the same kind of famous place names. According to statistics, there are 36 West Lakes in China. In Fujian, there are many "small Wuyi" outside Chong 'an County.

(3) Derived place names

Using the original place names and copying new place names by adding, merging and shrinking are derived place names. Additional forms are often used in places with population reproduction, settlement expansion and dense place names, such as Chang 'an Street-East Chang 'an Street, West Chang 'an Street, Chaobai River-Chaobai New River, Dingjia-Shangdingjia, Xiadingjia, Zhongshan Road-Zhongshan East Road-Zhongshan East Road, and Zhongshan East Road. Merger is common in the merger and expansion of administrative divisions, such as Jiangning, Gusu-Jiangsu, Fuzhou, Jianzhou-Fujian, Xiangyang and Fancheng-Xiangfan. Compact place names are often used for group place names, fragmentary place names and linear place names, such as Qutangxia, Wuxia, Xilingxia-Three Gorges, Yuechengling, Dupangling, Mengzhuling, Qitianling, Dayu-Wuling, Wu Jun, Xing Wu and Huiji-Sanwu. Hangzhou (State) Jia (Xing) Lake (State) Plain, (North) Beijing (Tianjin) Region, Yunnan (South) Guizhou (State) Plateau; Bao (Ji) Cheng (Du) Railway.

Several points should be paid attention to when identifying the categories of specific place names. Can't look at the meaning of the text, subjective classification. Some place names use the same or similar words, but the actual categories are not the same. For example, Hengchun in Tainan is a climate place name; Changchun in the northeast is just a willing place name. It can be seen that the classification of place names must be investigated and studied.

In addition, the category of place names will also change.

In addition, a place name does not necessarily use only one naming method. Xiaoxing 'anling is an additional derived place name and a willing place name; Shijiazhuang is a place name, which is converted into a class name and a name.